Jan Mark Van Mill has worked at APG, the asset management arm of Dutch
pension fund APB, for his whole 16
year career.

Starting at a trainee on the trading
desk as an equity execution analyst,
he later became a trader in equities
and equity derivatives.

In 2003, he became part of the fund
management team, looking after its
commodities portfolio and helping it
grow its assets under management
from one billion euros to 10 billion
euros. However, after two years Van
Mill came to the realisation that he
wanted to be in trading.

“It gave me a good view of both
sides of the trading firm – with
experience in both trade and
execution and in fund management.
After a time, I concluded I preferred
trading. I feel trading is 80% about
action and 20% research, whereas
fund management is the other way
round. I liked the interaction with
banks and the thrill of deal making,”
he says.

After moving back to the trading
desk as a senior trader, Van Mill
expanded his reach by also trading in
commodities and long-only rate
derivatives markets for its pension
fund clients. Following the financial
crisis, he was tasked to manage its
short trading strategy. “The company
needed more senior traders on the
short-side of the trade with
knowledge of post-trade processes,”
he explains.

Then in 2010 he was named co-headof trading, becoming responsible forall trading with over 450 billion eurosin assets under management forDutch pension funds.It was at this time that Van Mill ledthe team’s expansion into multi-asset,expanding into FX, futures, credit andfixed income derivatives.“We wanted to build out the tradingdesk and become responsible forimplementing new trading strategies.We gradually built it out to become afully multi-asset trading desk,” hesays.He sees the future of the tradingdesk being increasingly influenced bythe electronification of markets. “It ismoving from equities and into FX,futures, fixed income where electronicexecution is rapidly evolving. Withbanks being less able to provideliquidity, the structure of markets ischanging and will be in constant flux.“I hope to see more end-to-end usertrading through electronic platforms.This will be extremely important infixed income and repo trading.” nn Rising Stars Of Trading & Execution 2016